Skull Helmet
Intro:
A young man open his eyes, he's now awake. It's rain, he can feel gentle drops tickles his face as he watch the sky.
He hasn't memories from his past... just a basic conscious of
being, and, existence of things around him. He's watching the sky laying inside a open coffin placed in a open grave. "There's still something missing" he thought, he lowered his gaze: his crossed hands on his chest is holding something.
Rationale:
We control our hero (Ethan) in a 3D world but from a fixed view from above. Ethan wander in a closed field surrounded by enemies; his only weapon is a skull which (usually) he wears as helmet. The skull is magic, but it's power works only when it's cast in air so Ethan can't use it to cudgel while holding it. Each time the skull is thrown need to be re-collected from the ground: only one ammo, no inventory. The level is completed when all enemies are killed and so our hero can access to the next one.
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Gameplay and mechanicsEthan stances
Ethan, the character under player control, has different three behaviours depending on how and if he's holding or wearing the skull (see control section to see how player switch between stances). He can wear the skull over his head [
wearing.skull], holding in his bare hands [
holding.skull] or he doesn't have the skull at all [
no.skull]. When player is in [wearing.skull] he can strike with his head: headbutt is effectively to push away enemies, but it's not lethal nor cause further damage. Ethan can run while is [wearing.skull] but not when he's [holding.skull]
When holding the skull in his hands Ethan is ready to throw it (if he's still wearing over his head he need to remove and switch to [holding.skull] first) but in order to do so, he need to walk sideway; during so he moves dangerously slowly. After thrown the Skull, obviously, Ethan is left unarmed [no.skull] and need to recollect as soon possible from the ground.
Throw and regaining the skullThe only way to destroy Ethan enemies it's hitting throwing the skull at them. The skull itself it's magic: when it's not touching anything (animated or not) it's devastation power increase: more time time it stand in air, more powerful it becomes. So, naturally, the more far is the enemy you're aiming for... the more devastating will be the shoot (and thus, hit closer enemy does less damage).
Since the skull is the only ammo Ethan has, every time he need to recollect it from the ground. In order to simplify this process Ethan has Telekinesis power which bound only between Ethan and the Skull.
videoThere's no distance limit for Ethan's telekinesis power, but more far it's the skull... the more slow it's the recollecting speed.
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ControlsDefault key configuration it's the common WASD keys + mouse. With WASD player can move the hero in the eight direction while mouse it's used to place the target cursor
Ethan
always run when is [
wearing.skull] and has [
no.skull] and always sidewalk slowly while [
holding.skull].
MouseMouse control the target cursor used for the direction of the skull throw meanwhile the distance between Ethan and the cursor has no effect. The use of Left Button (LB) depend on which stance Ethan is:
[wearing.skull] - Gives headbutt
[holding.skull] - Throw the skull
[no.skull] - Use telekinesis (see: Throw and regaining the skull)
Middle Mouse button is used to switch between holding or wearing the skull ([wearing.skull] and [holding.skull]). Right mouse button it's currently unused evaluating if which kind of impact would have in the gameplay between have it as "Action Button" or "Jumps" (for jumps can be used [SPACE] anyway)
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There's still some undisclosed features about the gameplay here, this because I don't want to focus too much on a single project until I don't actually find some help (see
here). Once other developer will join me for an agreed project: I will totally fix my interest in that single one (and, thus, adapt it to the dev team skills).
So, for those who may be interested my email andress is: alessandro⁂gmx.ca
...or contact me on this forum and/or on the
official one
Developer
